Bertrand was forced to apologise for his condemnation of reports he had pulled out of England's World Cup qualifier against San Marino with a sore throat.

Although it was the Football Association's official description of the illness that had prevented Bertrand from training since he was called up by Roy Hodgson on Monday, the 23-year-old clearly felts it was an insufficient explanation of his return to Chelsea.

Less than a week after his club colleague Ashley Cole landed himself in hot water with his own Twitter rant, and two days after the FA's chairman, David Bernstein, confirmed the England squad had been spoken to about a new code of conduct – which will be in place for next month's friendly with Sweden – Bertrand let fly.

"Just to clarify.... Its not a 'sore throat' Im ill. swollen glands in my neck... And constant headache for 3 days now and freezin cold," Bertrand explained on Twitter.

"Do you think a 'sorethroat' could stop me being apart of a match for my club or country? #yourfuckingnuts this is what every boy dreams of."

Bertrand was far more vague than Cole, who made a direct attack on the FA, which means the matter will not go any further. However, he quickly realised his error anyway.

"sorry if i offended anyone by swearing as i don't encourage that type of language," he wrote. "was just disappointed at the thought of people thinking i only have a sore throat.. which is not the case.."

It left Hodgson to tidy up the remains of the mess. "What he was saying is quite laudable," the manager said. "He really wants to play for England and is really angry it has been suggested it is merely a sore throat when he is actually quite ill. But he shouldn't use a swear word."

Yet Hodgson acknowledges in a medium now used increasingly by players, getting away from language that would be common place on the training ground is not going to be easy.

"It would be a very nice world if we all walked around and there were no swear words," he said. "But you only have to put the TV on to hear as many swear words as you would like.

"You shouldn't do it but you won't get me to take it as something criminal. He has already apologised for it but it goes to show what a problem we will all have with Twitter. Football players are going to write on it the way they talk and sometimes they will use wrong words."

In this instance, the FA are also relaxed about the situation. It is likely, however, that Bertrand will be warned about future use of Twitter.

"The FA's governance department consider any tweets [from participants] in their full context before deciding on any disciplinary action," an FA spokesman said. "Having considered the context in this case, the FA's governance department are satisfied that no further action is required."

While not in the same league as Cole's rant, for which the FA have already charged the Chelsea full-back, it is a matter the governing body could have done without being raised.

On Tuesday, Bernstein confirmed a new code of conduct would be in place prior to next month's friendly with Sweden in Stockholm.

Not that Hodgson views it as a particularly big deal in the whole scheme of things. "The code of conduct has always been there," he said. "It has got a lot of publicity this week because we have put it down on paper rather than it being understood by everyone. I would suggest that since I have been with the team our conduct hasn't been that bad. Unfortunately we will always have an incident, first with Ashley, now with Ryan."